Coronavirus

I'm just going to vent for a while. Coronavirus has been everywhere and I'm sick of it and I'm sure you are too. But it's just I'm so annoyed with everyone right now. I had very little faith in our medical system to begin with, and then has completely obliterated any of that remaining. China dropped the ball, the government tried to cover it up instead of doing something so it got out and went to Europe. Then the US was completely inadequately prepared for it since Trump slashed CDC funding and fired officials hired by Obama to control pandemics. The irony is that countries like Italy that have been transparent about it and dealing with the pandemic alright are now getting slammed by everyone else so no one else wants to share what's been going on. And as of this past week the WHO has declared it a pandemic and everyone is freaking out and won't shut up about it on social media. And I'm so fucking sick of it.

First of all, let me state that this is a real public health crisis. It's exposing all of the cracks in our society and our health care system. You should 100% wash your hands (funnily enough, you should be doing this anyways) and self-isolate if you are in contact with older people. It's a very real fear and we should take precautions.

Having said all that, there is no need for this kind of mass panic. Buying masks in bulk is stupid, the masks only protect others if you are coughing. Shutting down major schools is horrible, it leaves many kids stranded if they cannot afford or simply just cannot go home right away. Everyone's in such a rush to make it look like they're making a last ditch effort to do SOMETHING that no one is doing anything well anymore. Not to mention that this disease is only killing off older people with pre-existing conditions (particularly respiratory and diabetes for some reason). College students aren't that. People in contact with those populations should have the brains to isolate themselves.

This is of lesser concern, but isolation is going to take one hell of a toll on people mentally. Depression and anxiety are going to skyrocket this year. Particularly among those college kids we just either sent home or told to become shut-ins. This is going to last for the next few months and riding it out is going to suck.

And then there's the public's response to this. People are being racist left, right, and center. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire thing was blamed on foreigners by the xenophobes. And the funny thing about foreign scary diseases is that they have a tendency to hit on election years...

I for one want to know where all of this momentum was when we heard it was going to be a bad flu year. The flu has a much higher mortality rate than COVID-19 thus far and while comparing the two is an oversimplification I think it stands to reason that if we're going to freak out this much over a foreign disease we should have done something about a seasonal one that we're prepared for. Or what if we put this energy towards fighting climate change? The possibilities are endless.

The absolutely stupid part of all of this is that we're going to be fine. Most people who get the disease recover. Therefore no one is going to do anything to fix this broken health care system. Honestly part of me hopes that shit seriously hits the fan here because maybe something will CHANGE. But I doubt it.

Let me reiterate though: definitely take the recommendations seriously. This is a pandemic and definitely something to be aware of. But please. Stop. Flipping. Out. You're going to be fine.